Look up opening in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Opening may refer to:

Games[link]

• Chess opening
• Backgammon opening theory
• Opening bid, a term from contract bridge

Other[link]

• Grand opening of a business or other institution
• Al-Fatiha, "The Opening", first chapter of the Qur'an
• Opening, a morphological filtering operation used in image processing
• Opening credits or title sequence of a TV show or film
• Opening statement, a beginning statement in a court case
• Saluting, opening a correspondence
• Vernissage, the opening of an art exhibition

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Opening"
• All pages with titles containing "Opening"
• Hole (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2011)

Jeanine Ferris Pirro (born June 2, 1951) is a former prosecutor, judge, and elected official from the state of New York, who is currently a legal analyst and television personality. A Republican from Westchester County, Pirro served as a county court judge before serving as the elected District Attorney of Westchester County for 12 years. As a district attorney she gained considerable visibility, especially in cases regarding domestic abuse and crimes against the elderly. She was the first female judge on the Westchester County Court bench.

Pirro was the Republican nominee for New York State Attorney General in 2006, losing to Democrat Andrew Cuomo (a fellow Albany Law alumnus). She also held the nominations of the New York Conservative and Independence Parties. She previously sought the nominations of her party for the offices of New York State Lieutenant Governor and United States Senator and withdrew her name in each case. She was a regular contributor to The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. She is currently contributing to Today, Fox NY Good Day New York, is a Fox News legal analyst appearing on various shows, and has guest hosted shows such as Larry King Live, The Joy Behar Show and Geraldo at Large. She is a frequent guest on Fox's late-night satire show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld, and also currently hosts a television program entitled Judge Jeanine Pirro. In May 2010, the show received its first Emmy nomination. Pirro is also the host of Fox News Channel's Justice with Judge Jeanine which premiered in January 2011. In 2011, Judge Pirro received the daytime Emmy Award for her TV court show "Judge Pirro."

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Pirro was born in Elmira, New York, to Nasser "Leo" and Esther Ferris. Her father was a mobile-home salesman; her mother, a department-store model. She is a Catholic of Lebanese descent.^[1]

She graduated from Notre Dame High School in three years rather than the usual four.^[2] She then graduated from the University at Buffalo. She received her J.D. degree at Albany Law School in 1975.

Marriage[link]

Jeanine Ferris married Albert Pirro in 1975. She was reported as being separated from her husband in a December 6, 2009 article in The New York Times.^[3]

Westchester County positions[link]

In 1978, Pirro became an assistant district attorney in Westchester County.

In 1986, GOP gubernatorial candidate Andrew O’Rourke selected Pirro to be his running mate in the campaign. Allegations surfaced about her husband's business dealings and his refusal to release information about his financial life. Pirro pulled out of the race and journalists later revealed her husband’s alleged ties to organized crime.

In 1989, she became a judge on the Westchester County Court, the first female to hold such a position.

In 1993, Pirro was elected district attorney of Westchester County, again the first female to hold that position.^[4] She was re-elected in 1997 and 2001. Prosecuting murder, rape, domestic violence, and other cases, Pirro achieved considerable fame and media visibility, appearing on television programs such as Larry King Live and Nightline. People magazine named her as one of its 50 Most Beautiful People in 1997.^[5]

In 1997 she chaired the New York State Commission on Domestic Violence Fatalities, whose report and recommendations resulted in legislation passing that enhanced protections of, and safeguards for, the victims of domestic abuse.

On May 23, 2005 Pirro announced that she would not seek re-election as Westchester Country District Attorney.^[6]

During her time in Westchester, it has been confirmed that Pirro met with Douglas Durst in regards to the 1982 disappearance of his sister in law, Kathie Durst. It has been speculated that this meeting put a stop to the reinvigorated search for Kathie and investigation into her death, which was largely thought to be at the hands of Robert Durst, Kathie's husband and Douglas' brother. This meeting was said to be mutually beneficial for Pirro's political and media career as well as for the Durst Corporation.

2006 U.S. Senate campaign[link]

On August 10, 2005 in New York City, Pirro announced that she would seek the Republican nomination to challenge first-term incumbent Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democrat, in the 2006 election for U.S. Senator from New York.

Other Republicans who announced campaigns for the nomination were John Spencer, a former mayor of Yonkers, William Brenner, an attorney in Sullivan County, and attorney Edward Cox, the son-in-law of former President Richard Nixon.

During an appearance at the Crime Victims Resource Center, Pirro described herself this way: "I am red on fiscal policy. I am conservative and I support the Bush tax cut." She added, however: "I have broad blue stripes when it comes to social issues... I am a woman who is a moderate in New York." ^[7]

Republican Governor George Pataki's endorsement of Pirro caused Cox to withdraw from the race,^[8] leaving Pirro as the likely nominee. On December 21, 2005, after continuing pressure from party chiefs, a lagging fundraising effort, and polls showing she would be defeated by Clinton (a Quinnipiac University poll found Pirro would lose to Clinton 62 percent to 30 percent), Jeanine Pirro dropped out of the Senate race just two months after she started her campaign. "I have decided that my law enforcement background better qualifies me for a race for New York State attorney general than a race for the United States Senate," she said in a statement.^[9]

Donors to the political campaigns of Jeanine Pirro have included designer Tommy Hilfiger (also a native of Elmira), Donald Trump and numerous contractors and real estate executives who have done business with her husband.^{[citation needed]}

2006 State Attorney General campaign[link]

On May 31, 2006, Pirro, unopposed for the GOP nomination, became the party's official candidate by acclamation at the GOP convention.^[10] However, in the general election, Pirro lost to the Democratic nominee, former Clinton Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo.^[11]

Judge Jeanine Pirro on The CW[link]

On May 5, 2008, The CW announced that Pirro would host a weekday television show to be named Judge Jeanine Pirro, part of the network's CW Daytime lineup and that features two episodes airing daily. The show is distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television and is by default carried by all CW affiliates.^[12]

Judge Jeanine Pirro has been cleared for a second season beginning in fall 2009. Unlike its first season, the second season launching fall 2009 was not exclusive to CW affiliates.^[13]

References[link]

Sources and further reading[link]

• Healy, Patrick D. "Democrats Push Rival to Repay Security Costs." New York Times. August 3, 2005.
• Kovaleski, Serge F. "In Sex Arrests Hailed by Pirro, Little Jail Time." New York Times. October 13, 2006.
• "Pirro Takes Aim at Clinton's Job". Newsday, August 9, 2005.

External links[link]

• The Jeanine Machine A frank biography by S. Richard Blassberg
• New York Elections, informedandenfranchised.com
• Westchester County District Attorney's Office official website As of January 2006^[update], Janet DiFiore holds this office.
• Jeanine Pirro for Attorney General official website
• Jeanine Pirro official website

Mark Ruffalo
Ruffalo at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival
Born	Mark Alan Ruffalo (1967-11-22) November 22, 1967 (age 44) Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1987–present
Spouse	Sunrise Coigney (2000–present)

Mark Alan Ruffalo (born November 22, 1967) is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, Collateral, You Can Count on Me, The Avengers, and The Kids Are All Right, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.^[1]

Early life[link]

Ruffalo was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His mother, Marie Rose (née Hebert), is a hairdresser and stylist, and his father, Frank Lawrence Ruffalo, Jr., worked as a construction painter.^[1][2][3] His father and maternal grandmother were of Italian descent, and his maternal grandfather was of French Canadian ancestry.^[4][5] He has two sisters, Tania and Nicole, and a brother, Scott,^[1] who died in December 2008. Ruffalo has described himself as having been a "happy kid"^[6] and his upbringing as taking place in a "very big" family with "lots of love".^[7] Of his father, Ruffalo has said, "He was an amazing, charismatic guy who was city high school wrestling champion three times. He was away a lot when I was growing up. I was very lonely for him.”^[8] Ruffalo was raised Roman Catholic; he attended both a Catholic and a progressive school. Ruffalo spent his teen years in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where his father worked. He graduated from First Colonial High School,^[1] and then moved with his family to San Diego, and later to Los Angeles, California. There, he took classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory and co-founded the Orpheus Theatre Company.^[1] With the OTC, he wrote, directed, and starred in a number of plays, and spent the next nine years earning his money as a bartender.

Career[link]

Acting[link]

Ruffalo had minor roles in films like The Dentist (1996), the low-key crime comedy Safe Men (1998) and Ang Lee's Civil War Western Ride with the Devil (1999). Through a chance meeting with writer Kenneth Lonergan, Ruffalo began collaborating with Lonergan and appeared in several of his plays, including the original cast of This is Our Youth (1998), which led to Ruffalo's role as Laura Linney's troubled, aimless drifter brother Terry in Lonergan's acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated 2000 film You Can Count on Me.^[1] He received favorable reviews for his performance in this film, often earning comparisons to the young Marlon Brando, and won awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and Montreal World Film Festival.^[1]

This led to other significant roles, including the films XX/XY (2002), Isabel Coixet's My Life Without Me with Sarah Polley (2003), Jane Campion's In the Cut with Meg Ryan (2003), Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), and We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004), which is based upon two short stories written by Andre Dubus.^[1] He appeared opposite Tom Cruise as a narcotics detective in Michael Mann's acclaimed crime-thriller Collateral (2004).^[1] More recently, Ruffalo has appeared as a romantic lead in "chick flicks" such as View From the Top (2002), 13 Going on 30 (2004), Just Like Heaven (2005) and Rumor Has It (2005).^[1] In 2006, Ruffalo starred in Clifford Odets's Awake and Sing! at the Belasco Theatre in New York, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.^[1] In March 2007, he appeared in Zodiac as SFPD homicide inspector Dave Toschi, who ran the investigation to find and apprehend the Zodiac killer from 1969 through most of the 1970s.^[1] In 2007, Ruffalo played divorced lawyer Dwight Arno, who accidentally kills a child and speeds away, in Terry George's film Reservation Road, based on the novel by John Burnham Schwartz.

In 2008, Ruffalo starred as a con man in The Brothers Bloom with Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz. Also in 2008, he starred along with Julianne Moore in Blindness. 2008 also saw Ruffalo in Brian Goodman's What Doesn't Kill You with Ethan Hawke and Amanda Peet, which was shown at the Toronto Film Festival. In 2009, he played a brief role in the film Where The Wild Things Are as Max's mother's boyfriend. In 2010, he costarred in the Martin Scorsese thriller Shutter Island as U.S. Marshal Chuck Aule, the partner of Leonardo DiCaprio's character Teddy Daniels.^[9]

In 2010, he starred in Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right, with Annette Bening and Julianne Moore. Ruffalo stated in an interview that he approached Cholodenko after watching High Art and said he would love to work with her. Years later, she called Ruffalo and said she wrote a script, and had him in mind for the part. The performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor.^[10]

He is set to star in Second Coming, a low-budget indie film. According to Production Weekly, it is being produced by Richard N. Gladstein, Laura Bickford, and Ludovic Dardenay. The movie will also star Marion Cotillard, Ethan Hawke, Anjelica Huston, and Thandie Newton, and it will be the directorial debut of Nenad Cicin-Sain.^[11]

On July 23, 2010, it was announced that Ruffalo would star in the 2012 superhero film The Avengers. He received critical acclaim for his performance as Dr. Bruce Banner in the film.^[12]

Directing[link]

He made his directorial debut with Sympathy for Delicious, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize. On releasing the film, Ruffalo said, "I'm still looking for distribution. I have a couple offers on the table, but I'm holding out for something a little bigger. I've been screening it for a lot of groups, and people are really responding to it. I think they're scared of that movie."^[13] Of directing, he says, "I liken it to an actor gets to eat one slice, and a director gets to eat the whole pie. [laughs] You get to collaborate with gifted people who are good at their craft, so you're orchestrating all these different mediums. You're helping people through the script to realize their own talents. I find that really satisfying, and I felt like being in front of the camera is so intense and self-involved and personal, and directing isn't like that for me. It's a much more communal experience. Last year at this time, I was like, 'I'm not going back to acting, man. No way, it's done.' I haven't worked in a year. It's really taken me that long to get back to my love for what I do for acting. I would like to do 50-50, if I could. Really, I'd just be directing right now, but I can't support my family doing that at this moment, and I love acting. It's not a bad position to be in."^[13]

Personal life[link]

Family[link]

Since June 2000, Mark has been married to French-American actress Sunrise Coigney (born Christina Sunrise Coigney on September 17, 1972 in San Francisco), and they have three children: a son Keen, born in 2001, and daughters Bella Noche, born in 2005, and Odette, born in 2007, in Los Angeles.^[14]

On December 1, 2008, Ruffalo's brother, Scott, was shot at his Beverly Hills condominium,^[15] with one report describing the shooting as "execution-style" in the back of the head.^[16] Scott died on December 8, 2008. Police took two people into custody: a woman who is considered a suspect and a man considered a "person of interest".^[17] One of the suspects reportedly told police that Scott Ruffalo shot himself while playing Russian roulette;^[18] the witnesses were later released as the police investigation continued.^[19]

In 2002, Ruffalo was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, a type of brain tumor, and had surgery; the tumor was benign, but resulted in a period of partial facial paralysis.^[2] He fully recovered from the paralysis and returned to good health as well as an active life and movie career.

Ruffalo is a vegetarian.^[20]

Political views[link]

On October 4, 2006, he appeared on Democracy Now!, a daily news program. He spoke against the War in Iraq, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, torture, and the Bush Administration. He also announced he would speak at The World Can't Wait Protest in New York City on October 5, 2006. Ruffalo contributed to the campaign of former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel for the 2008 Democratic Party nomination for President.^[21]

In October 2007, Ruffalo criticized the 9/11 Commission Report as "completely illegitimate" and called for re-opening the investigation. He said: "I saw the way they all came down and I am baffled. My first reaction is that buildings don't fall down like that." He also criticized the 9/11 truth movement, saying "There's so much information that's been put out there by truth for 9/11 and ... so much of it has been stretched that a lot of people are grabbing hold of the more sensational parts of what doesn't jibe..."^[22]

[edit] Opposition to fracking

On October 4, 2010, Ruffalo, who makes his home with his family in Callicoon, New York, appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show to discuss hydraulic fracturing and the The FRAC Act of 2009.^[23] Ruffalo stated in the December 2010 issue of GQ magazine that after he organized screenings in Pennsylvania of a documentary about natural-gas-drilling called Gasland, he was placed on a terror advisory list.^[24] The Department of Homeland Security denied that they had him on a list.^[25]

On July 13, 2011, Ruffalo appeared on Countdown With Keith Olbermann to discuss fracking, most particularly in New York. "This is an industry that is the dirtiest, slimiest, most arrogant, and negligent that you can imagine," Ruffalo says. Ruffalo taped an "online segment extra" for Countdown, during which time Keith Olbermann offered him the opportunity to become an official Countdown Contributor. Ruffalo gratefully accepted.^[26]

On March 28, 2012, Ruffalo appeared on The Colbert Report to discuss his continued opposition to fracking and promote waterdefense.org.^[27]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Mark Ruffalo at the Internet Movie Database
• Mark Ruffalo at the Internet Broadway Database
• Mark Ruffalo at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• People in Film: Mark Ruffalo at Focus Features
• Clips from Ruffalo interview on Inside the Actors Studio
• Mark Ruffalo Producer Profile for The 1 Second Film

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2012)

Morgan Freeman
Freeman in 2006.
Born	(1937-06-01) June 1, 1937 (age 75) Memphis, Tennessee
Alma mater	Jackson State University
Occupation	Actor, director, narrator
Years active	1964–present
Spouse	Jeanette Adair Bradshaw (1967–79) Myrna Colley-Lee (1984–2010)

Morgan Freeman^[1] (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, film director, aviator and narrator. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won in 2005 for Million Dollar Baby. He has also won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Freeman has appeared in many other box office hits, including Unforgiven, Glory, Seven, Deep Impact, The Sum of All Fears, Bruce Almighty, Batman Begins, March of the Penguins, The Bucket List, Wanted, The Dark Knight, and RED.

Early life[link]

Morgan Freeman was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of Mayme Edna (née Revere), a teacher,^[2] and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a barber who died April 27, 1961, from cirrhosis. He has three older siblings. Freeman was sent as an infant to his paternal grandmother in Charleston, Mississippi.^[3][4][5] His family moved frequently during his childhood, living in Greenwood, Mississippi; Gary, Indiana; and finally Chicago, Illinois.^[5] Freeman made his acting debut at age 9, playing the lead role in a school play. He then attended Broad Street High School, later named Threadgill Elementary School, in Mississippi. At age 12, he won a statewide drama competition, and while still at Broad Street High School, he performed in a radio show based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1955, he graduated from Broad Street, but turned down a partial drama scholarship from Jackson State University, opting instead to work as a mechanic in the United States Air Force.

Freeman moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s and worked as a transcript clerk at Los Angeles Community College. During this period, he also lived in New York City, working as a dancer at the 1964 World's Fair, and in San Francisco, where he was a member of the Opera Ring musical theater group. Freeman acted in a touring company version of The Royal Hunt of the Sun, and also appeared as an extra in the 1965 film The Pawnbroker. He made his off-Broadway debut in 1967, opposite Viveca Lindfors in The Nigger Lovers^[6][7] (about the civil rights era "Freedom Riders"), before debuting on Broadway in 1968's all-black version of Hello, Dolly!, which also starred Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway.

Career[link]

Acting career[link]

Freeman at the 10 Items or Less premiere in Madrid with co-star Paz Vega.

Although his first credited film appearance was in 1971's Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow?, Freeman first became known in the American media through roles on the soap opera Another World and the PBS kids' show The Electric Company,^[5] (notably as Easy Reader and Vincent the Vegetable Vampire) which he later said he should have left earlier than he did.

Beginning in the mid-1980s, Freeman began playing prominent supporting roles in many feature films, earning him a reputation for depicting wise, fatherly characters.^[5] As he gained fame, he went on to bigger roles in films such as the chauffeur Hoke in Driving Miss Daisy, and Sergeant Major Rawlins in Glory (both in 1989).^[5] In 1994 he portrayed Red, the redeemed convict in the acclaimed The Shawshank Redemption. In the same year he was a member of the jury at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival.^[8]

He also starred in films such as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Unforgiven, Seven, and Deep Impact. In 1997, Freeman, together with Lori McCreary, founded the film production company Revelations Entertainment, and the two co-head its sister online film distribution company ClickStar. Freeman also hosts the channel Our Space on ClickStar, with specially crafted film clips in which he shares his love for the sciences, especially space exploration and aeronautics.

After three previous nominations—a supporting actor nomination for Street Smart, and leading actor nominations for Driving Miss Daisy, and The Shawshank Redemption—he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Million Dollar Baby at the 77th Academy Awards.^[5] Freeman is recognized for his distinctive voice, making him a frequent choice for narration. In 2005 alone, he provided narration for two films, War of the Worlds and the Academy Award-winning documentary film March of the Penguins.

Freeman appeared as God in the hit film Bruce Almighty and its sequel, Evan Almighty, as well as Lucius Fox in the critical and commercial success Batman Begins and its 2008 sequel, The Dark Knight. He starred in Rob Reiner's 2007 film The Bucket List, opposite Jack Nicholson. He teamed with Christopher Walken and William H. Macy for the comedy The Maiden Heist, which was released direct to video due to financial problems of the distribution company. In 2008, Freeman returned to Broadway to co-star with Frances McDormand and Peter Gallagher for a limited engagement of Clifford Odets's play, The Country Girl, directed by Mike Nichols.

He had wanted to do a film based on Nelson Mandela for some time. At first he tried to get Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, adapted into a finished script, but it was not finalized.^[9] In 2007 he purchased the film rights to a pre-published 2008 book by John Carlin, Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation.^[10] Clint Eastwood directed the Nelson Mandela bio-pic titled Invictus, starring Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as rugby team captain Francois Pienaar.^[11] In October 2010, Freeman co-starred alongside Bruce Willis in Red.^[12]

Freeman's latest project is the Danny DeVito directed film Charlotte Doyle which will also feature Irish actor Pierce Brosnan and is due to start filming in Ireland in early 2012.^[13]

Other work[link]

In July 2009 Freeman was one of the presenters at the 46664 concert (celebrating Nelson Mandela's birthday) at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Freeman was the first American to record a par on Legend Golf & Safari Resort's Extreme 19th hole.^[14]

At age 65, Freeman earned a private pilot's license.^[15] He owns or has owned at least three private aircraft, including a Cessna Citation 501 jet and a Cessna 414 twin-engine prop. In 2007 he purchased an Emivest SJ30^[16] long-range private jet, and took delivery in December 2009.^[17] He is certified to fly all of them.^[18]

Effective January 4, 2010, Freeman replaced Walter Cronkite as the voiceover introduction to the CBS Evening News featuring Katie Couric as news anchor.^[19] CBS cited the need for consistency in introductions for regular news broadcasts and special reports as the basis for the change.^[19]

As of 2010^[update], Freeman is the host and narrator of the Discovery Channel television show Through the Wormhole.^[20]

He was featured on the opening track to B.o.B's second album Strange Clouds. The track, "Bombs Away", features a prologue and epilogue (which leads in to a musical outro) spoken by Morgan Freeman

In September 2011, Freeman was featured with John Lithgow in the Broadway debut of Dustin Lance Black's play, '8' — a staged reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage — as Attorney David Boies.^[21] The production was held at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights.^[22][23]

Personal life[link]

Freeman and his wife, Myrna Colley-Lee, at the 1990 Academy Awards

Family[link]

Freeman was married to Jeanette Adair Bradshaw from October 22, 1967 until 1979.

He married Myrna Colley-Lee on June 16, 1984. The couple separated in December 2007. Freeman and Colley-Lee had adopted Freeman's step-granddaughter from first marriage and together helped to raise her. Freeman's attorney and business partner, Bill Luckett, announced in August 2008, that Freeman and his wife were in the process of divorce.^[24] On September 15, 2010, their divorce was finalized in Mississippi.^[25] The couple's divorce is said to be due to Freeman being caught by Colley-Lee having a sexual relationship with his step-granddaughter Hines which according to reports lasted almost a decade. Neither are blood releated. Freeman was in his early seventies while Hines in her late twenties at the time of Freeman's divorce. Despite rumors of marriage and baby, Freeman and Hines were said to have split up in 2012. Freeman is now said to be dating a girl even younger than Hines. ^[26]

In 2008, the TV series African American Lives 2 revealed that Freeman's great-great-grandparents were slaves who migrated from North Carolina to Mississippi. Freeman also discovered that his caucasian maternal great-great-grandfather had lived with, and was buried beside, Freeman's African-American great-great-grandmother (the two could not legally marry at the time, in the South).^[2]

Properties[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2012)

Freeman lives in Charleston, Mississippi, and New York City. He co-owns and operates Madidi,^[27] a fine dining restaurant, and Ground Zero, a blues club, both located in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Car accident[link]

Freeman was injured in an automobile accident near Ruleville, Mississippi, on the night of August 3, 2008. The vehicle in which he was traveling, a 1997 Nissan Maxima, left the highway and flipped over several times. He and a female passenger, Demaris Meyer, were rescued from the vehicle using the "Jaws of Life". Freeman was taken via medical helicopter to The Regional Medical Center (The Med) hospital in Memphis.^[28][29] Police ruled out alcohol as a factor in the crash.^[30] Freeman was coherent following the crash, as he joked to a photographer about taking his picture at the scene.^[31] He broke his shoulder, arm and elbow in the crash and had surgery on August 5, 2008. Doctors operated for four hours to repair nerve damage in his shoulder and arm.^[32] On CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight he stated that he is left handed but cannot move the fingers of his left hand. He wears a compression glove to protect against blood pooling due to non-movement. His publicist announced he was expected to make a full recovery.^[33][34] Meyer, his passenger, has sued him for negligence, claiming that he was drinking the night of the accident.^[35]

Beliefs[link]

In an interview with CNN, Freeman denied the claim that he was a "man of God", saying that "the question of faith is whatever you actually believe is. We take a lot of what we're talking about in science on faith; we posit a theory, and until it's disproven we have faith that it's true."^[36]

Activism[link]

Charitable work[link]

In 2004 Freeman and others formed the Grenada Relief Fund to aid people affected by Hurricane Ivan on the island of Grenada. The Grenada Relief Fund has since become PLANIT NOW, an organization that seeks to provide preparedness resources for people living in hurricane and severe-storm afflicted areas.^[37]

Freeman has worked on narrating small clips for global organizations, such as One Earth,^[38] whose goals include raising awareness of environmental issues. He has narrated the clip "Why Are We Here", which can be viewed on One Earth's website.

Freeman has donated money to the Mississippi Horse Park in Starkville, Mississippi. The Horse park is part of Mississippi State University. Freeman has several horses that he takes there.^[39]

Comments on race[link]

Freeman has publicly criticized the celebration of Black History Month and does not participate in any related events, saying, "I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history."^[40] He says the only way to end racism is to stop talking about it, and he notes that there is no "white history month."^[41] Freeman once said on an interview with 60 Minutes' Mike Wallace, "I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man."^[40] Freeman supported the defeated proposal to change the Mississippi state flag, which contains the Confederate battle flag.^[42][43]

Politics[link]

Freeman endorsed Barack Obama's candidacy for the 2008 presidential election, although he stated that he would not join Obama's campaign.^[44] He narrates for The Hall of Presidents with Barack Obama, who has been added to the exhibit.^[45][46] The Hall of Presidents re-opened on July 4, 2009 at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.^[46]

Freeman joined President Bill Clinton, USA Bid Committee Chairman Sunil Gulati, and USMNT midfielder Landon Donovan on Wednesday, December 1, 2010, in Zurich for the USA bid committee's final presentation to FIFA for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.^[47]

Freeman sparked an outcry in September 2011 when, on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight, he accused the Tea Party movement of racism.^[48]

Freeman: [the Tea Party's] stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term. What's, what does that, what underlines that? Screw the country. We're going to do whatever we do to get this black man, we can, we're going to do whatever we can to get this black man outta here.

Morgan: But is that necessarily a racist thing?...Wouldn't they say that about any Democrat?

Freeman: It is a racist thing...[The rise of the Tea Party] shows the weak, dark underside of America. We're supposed to be better than that. We really are. That's why all those people were in tears when Obama was elected president. 'Ah look at what we are–this is America.' Then it just sort of started turning because these people surfaced–like stirring up muddy water.^[49][50]

Freeman was criticized for the comments; black Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said the comments were short-sighted and said most who have criticized the Tea Party have never been to a Tea Party,^[51] and actor Adam Baldwin said, "It's the content of Obama's character [and] policies, not the color of his skin, that's at issue."^[48]

Honors[link]

On October 28, 2006, Freeman was honored at the first Mississippi's Best Awards in Jackson, Mississippi, with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his works on and off the big screen. He received an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts and Letters from Delta State University during the school's commencement exercises on May 13, 2006.^[52]

In 2008, Freeman's family history was profiled on the PBS series African American Lives 2. A DNA test showed that he is descended from the Songhai and Tuareg peoples of Niger.

Filmography[link]

Other awards and honors[link]

• 1978 Nominated for Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play in The Mighty Gents
• 1997 Received an honorary degree from Rhodes College, becoming an honorary alumnus^[56]
• 2003 Received the Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
• 2006 Guest of honor at the Cairo International Film Festival
• 2007 He and his wife received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters
• 2007 Outstanding Contribution To Film And TV gong at the Screen Nation Film and TV Awards
• 2008 Kennedy Center Honors
• 2010 Received an honorary degree from Brown University^[57]
• 2011 Received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute
• 2012 Chosen as Favorite Movie Icon at the People's Choice Awards
• 2012 Cecil B. DeMille Award

References[link]

External links[link]

	Film portal
	Television portal
	Biography portal